Monday Manna
Good morning, friends, and peace to your hearts at the close of this month…
If you are new to Monday Manna, I’m so glad you are here. My prayer with this little pause on Monday mornings is to offer some nourishment (“manna”) for you — via my reflection, prayer, and art — as you are nourishing the world around you. Together, we are watching for the ways God is with us and for us as we take one day at a time….
One of my favorite books of all time is Let Your Life Speak, by Parker Palmer. I first read it in my Senior Seminar class at Bethel University with Dr. Ritchie. It has since become a book I’ve returned to time and again, as well as my husband, Jeff — we’ve brought it along on travel, too. I can remember driving through the endless desert sky of New Mexico from Santa Fe to Albuquerque, reading portions of it aloud while Jeff drove. It’s an important touchstone for us.
The whole premise of Palmer’s very short, deeply profound book is the question, “Is the life I am living the same as the life that wants to live in me?” This is a dramatically different place to center one’s life around than what (and I’ll speak for myself) I often feel compelled to center my life around — results, outcomes, and efficiency.
In fact, it was listening many months ago to an interview Parker did with Emily P. Freeman that reawakened me to this in a fresh way. He was holding these questions up to the light like a prism — showing the gap between what a life directed by inner purpose looks like in comparison to one based on results. He termed it his “life-long wrestling match with the idea in American culture that…the aim of our lives is to be effective.” A portion which especially resounded in my soul was when Parker said….
“I think somewhere in the spiritual journey for me is the notion that there’s something off-kilter about working in order to achieve a particular outcome. Better that you be called, or even driven, by a sense that this is my work to do whatever the outcome may be….as I used to say when people pressed me on why I was making all these counter-cultural decisions, why not pursue a safe, well-compensated career in the university? Why launch off into the great unknown and sort of put your own income together every three months while you do your community organizing in Washington?
What I used to say was, ‘I can barely explain it to myself, let alone explain it to you. But this I can tell you—I can’t not do it.’ There was this sense that this is something that, if I tried to run away from it, I’d pay a soul price somewhere down the road.”
So often, as Parker also talks about, committing our lives to this kind of deep work means we are plunging into meaningful purposes like spreading love, truth, and justice. And as Parker goes on to say, with any of these things, you can’t be efficient. The danger in that, especially when people are constantly asking what results we’re getting, is that we will give up on that deep work for smaller and smaller tasks since those are the ones we can measure and check off.
Parker shares how early on in his work for social change, “I created a litmus test for myself. I thought of heroes, of the people I most admire, who devoted themselves to the cause of love, truth, and justice…and then I’d think of those people as they are nearing the end of their lives. Was any of them able to say, ‘I’m sure glad I took on that particular work because now everyone on the planet can check it off their to-do list forever"? Of course the answer is, ‘no.’”
And that’s the thing. The work God may be drawing you into is work that will not have resolution at the end of the day, let alone in your lifetime. And so your “measure” becomes not whether the work is complete, but the devotion and faithfulness you bring to the work.
Lest you think this is only a question for the young, starting to launch and finding a path, Parker also shares he did not experience vocational clarity until his fifties.
So my prayer, here, is that you will get still today and listen for what your life is saying, asking, calling of you.
What is the thing you can’t not do?
And as my therapist has told me more times than I can count,
Do the thing.
You will ask yourself not what outcome or result you’re hoping for, but who you are becoming as you do it.
Regardless of what can be seen or measured.
God sees. And your soul will feel in alignment. And that is worth far more than anything.
A Prayer
This prayer speaks to my own resistance and running from what God’s asked of my life, and my hopes to turn and embrace. From my book, Ash and Starlight: Prayers for the Chaos and Grace of Daily Life…
When I’ve been running from what God’s asked
Patient One,
I can be so reluctant…so resistant…
I can hear your call,
then flee in the other direction.
I can receive your vision,
then hide from its hope.
I can see your sweet grace,
then whine it’s not fair.
I can stand so ready to judge those around me,
when my ground is no higher than theirs.
And then, Patient One, you come again –
you come to my fearfulness,
arrogance and boundary lines
with your mercy, compassion,
and steadfast love.
You come to my small vision with
an eye, a word, a touch that
can swallow the universe in love.
You come and share how forgiveness
is always an unlocked door.
What lies behind it might be unexpected,
but it promises to unbind my hurt
with welcome, strength, and affirmation.
You always give me a chance to change –
as many chances as I ask for and more.
So, Patient One, please restore
in me some love, trust, and hope…
a clear picture of what my life might look like if
everyone were a sister and brother….
because they are.
Open my relentless grip on what I’ve
always known and been
that I might embrace the
callings before me here and now.
Amen.
Jonah 2:1-10 * Luke 15:20-24 * Colossians 1:13-14
“But while [the son] was still far off, his
father saw him and was filled with
compassion; he ran and put his arms
around him and kissed him.” - Luke 15:20
Something that nourished me recently…
*One of my small promises to myself in September was to try and paint or sketch every day. I will admit, there were many evenings I did not want to pull out any supplies, and some nights, I simply did a rainbow or pooled some colors together in color-mixing. But I reminded what can be built in us when we strengthen the muscle by giving even five to ten minutes.
*A friend hosted a “Get out to Vote” postcard party last week for Moms Demand Action where we addressed postcards with handwritten notes. Believe in the future we yearn for…Friends, let’s do this!!!
* Sparkle Sisters…I learn so much and am deeply inspired by these writerly, wise, generous women. They are putting so much goodness out into the world through their writing and presence. Thank you….
*When there are lots of stressors — and there were plenty last week — this is something I come back to….
Ash and Starlight, plus other good things…
*SECOND EDITION OF ASH AND STARLIGHT ~ Find the updated edition of my book here at Chalice or at the Amazon link!
Will you write a review?? Speaking of this, friends, I have a favor, and forgive me for asking again. There have been issues with merging reviews of the editions of Ash and Starlight on Amazon, and for a long time, it was sitting with a couple reviews and a bad rating. 😞 If God has touched you through Ash and Starlight, would you take five minutes to give the new edition a good rating on Amazon? It helps others find the book in the algorithm world. You can write a review by clicking this link. If you wrote a review for the first edition, you can always copy-paste. :) Also, this meme gave me a good laugh. Not that I’m at that caliber. 🤣
*MONDAY MANNA ARCHIVES ~ You can view previous Substack Monday Manna reflections as a paid subscriber here, or for the really old stuff, go to my website.
*WHAT DOES MANNA MEAN? ~ Check out an earlier post to learn how this little bit of “daily bread” got its name…
Listen this week for how your life is speaking to you, friends. And do the thing….
Love and Light,
Arianne
I love hearing from you! You are manna. Reply to this note to send a message directly to my inbox.
Thank you - a wonderful inspiration for this Monday morning. I laughed (and needed to!) at the meme of Dr. Lewis!
Oh I love that book. I read it after I left Cargill and have revisited it many times since. I loved reading your thoughts on it, Arianne. One of my favorite quotes:
“Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you. Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to, let your life tell you what truths you embody, what values you represent.”